Tuesday, January 30, 2007

So...Anyone Know Who the Vikings are Hiring?

Apparently, no one has a clue about who the Vikings are going to hire to replace Mike Tomlin. After Eagles' linebacker coach,Steve Spagnuolo (Childress' second choice after Tomlin last year and likely first choice this year) was hired by the Giants the day Tomlin was announced as the Steelers' head coach, all anyone has has been able to do is speculate. Kevin Seifert has three possibilities:

• "The first choice of coach Brad Childress -- and possibly the second andthird -- opted for another position.• Unable to make a quick hire, the Vikings are waiting to interview anassistant from this year's Super Bowl teams, Chicago and Indianapolis. Bothteams play a version of the Tampa-2 defense Tomlin employed last season inMinnesota, minimizing the level of disruption that goes along with changingcoordinators.• The Vikings already have settled on a candidate but have not announced itfor competitive or other reasons."

If I were more creative, I'd come up with some type of humorous fourth reason, such as Zygi deciding that he would take over the defense as part of his new hands on approach. Or maybe that the Vikings are in negotiations with Bud Grant to come back, and the lack of press coverage is due to the lack of cell phone coverage where Grant is hunting white tail. Or maybe Zygi is trying to convince a legendary Giants coach to come out of retirement. Then again, that hire would almost guarantee the same outcome as Randy Wittman's.

As you can see, I really have no idea what the Vikings's plans are. No one does. Nor am I able to weigh in on what they should do (sorry folks, but I'm not very knowledgable about random defensive position coaches) until some possible candidates are discussed. And, to be honest, I'd much rather find out about the Vikings' new defensive coordinator when he's hired than have it play out in the press like Tomlin's hiring by the Steelers was. Maybe, in this era of constant rumors and 24 hour coverage, it's refreshing to not be innundated by rumors and speculation. Or maybe, after four years at Georgetown, I'm just used to the secrecy.